SHSU Information Resources Update

E-Mail Delays

This past month, we have experienced a number of e-mail backlogs due to heavy traffic. We're redefining snail mail!

We apologize to those of you who were relying on time-critical responses. One culprit appears to be our many Facebook users. We were forced to block all incoming traffic from that site to permit our e-mail server to catch up.

You can help us with this by visiting with students. Ask them to reduce the number of times per day they get notifications from Facebook. To disable Facebook notification emails, users simply click "Account" at the top right of their home page, and then select the notifications tab. This page will allow them to disable just some or all notification emails from Facebook. Alternatively, on the Account page, they can choose a different email for receiving notifications.

Additionally, we are investigating what filtering we can do to reduce the impact of massive spam attacks. As we mentioned last month, we do recommend you create a back-up account for emergencies such as attacks or power outages or server problems. Yahoo and gmail provide free accounts for quick access when needed.

A New Look

The University web site is overdue for its facelift. Months ago we asked for votes on the designs. We took your input and went back to the drawing board. Check out the new design. Some of the background reasons for this particular look are:

The ability to use high quality campus pictures with the adjusted aspect ratio.
ADA Compliant by design.
Space designated for promos for an area of the university. Here's where we'll need your help. Tell us what's wonderful about your college. Let's focus on the great academic and research accomplishments. Just e-mail us to tell us the good stuff.
The flexibility to provide Flash which will allow selected pictures to give message content.
Extra space to permit more items to appear on the main page.
- Can have sufficient planned space for emergency notifications.
Improved navigation which can be quickly updated for all pages.

All the corresponding general pages will be updated; this will permit the "branding" effect to follow through consistently. If we have omitted a link that you feel is critical, please let us know. We plan to go live with the new web pages by March 1st.

Check with Us

Most of you already know to visit with UCS in regard to printers, software, desktops, and laptops. We are also available to help advise you on your radios and projectors. We would all like to have as much standardization throughout campus as possible to help reduce the learning curve when you're in different classrooms or when it needs repairs.

Before you order new equipment or send your old equipment to Property, check with us. We may be able to get warranty work done on your equipment or we may be able to rescue parts that can be used for others.

Terminal Servers

The new terminal servers are now up and reachable by remote.shsu.edu. You may use that option to access the S: drive or T: drive from home. You may also use it for Microsoft Office applications.

The number of users that may use this at once still needs to be watched closely. Please consider whether you can rethink your processes to avoid having to be on remote.

The University has a site license for Microsoft Office at-home use for "SHSU knowledge workers." Therefore you can request the disks from the Helpdesk and install Office on your home computer.

Memory sticks (flash drives) are now much more affordable and can easily be attached to your key ring. You may be able to carry a file home with you easily to work and then bring it back the next morning, thereby avoiding any need to get to your S: drive or Word through remote.

If you are using remote to log into Nell, we can suggest a free downloadable telnet option for you. Let us know what you use remote for and perhaps we can suggest other alternatives to allow you to do your tasks without remote access.

Dial for Free When You Can

Phone calls have been made to local numbers using long distance dialing. Please try 936 area code numbers first as local with just dialing 9, and then the 7-digit number. If it is long distance, no problem---go with the 9-1 and the full number---but let's save pennies where we can.

Blackboard Upgrade Scheduled

Bb will be down during the week of spring break. Check out the Blackboard blog for all the details.

Classtime

Want to know more about Microsoft Office or creating interactive PDF's? Check the Calendar for class times. You can sign up now to reserve your seat.

Just Between Us

A message from Brian S. Rawson, the Chief Technology Officer for the State of Texas.

What data do you have access to and what might be considered confidential or private?
How is this data stored? On the network? On CDs or flash drives? On your laptop? On your Blackberry? On paper?
What are the requirements for retention and disposal of this data?
What steps do you take to protect the data entrusted to you?
Have you evaluated the data you collect and made an effort to
only collect the minimum required, to avoid maintaining private or confidential information?

New Staff

Thomas Dewing has joined the UCS-Systems Department as a system administrator. Thomas is finishing up his Bachelor of Science degree in Computing Science here at SHSU. We are pleased to welcome him to our department. Thomas has just been honored as one of the members of SHSU's first-place team in the Defense Cyber Crime Center Digital Forensics Challenge!

We are still interviewing for a number of new positions. Please recommend and refer applicants to the HR site to apply.

Freebies

We have cleaned out our closet and found some printer supplies that might be of benefit to your department. These items are first-come first-served, so use the SamWeb WO system to submit your request for your department. Thank you for reading the Update!

Qty

Item

Model

1

Black Toner

Canon 6000, 7000, 8000

3

Yellow Toner

HP Color Laserjet 4500

1

Magenta Toner

HP Color Laserjet 4500, 4550

3

Black Toner

HP Color Laserjet 4500, 4550

1

Black Toner

HP Laserjet 1200, 1220, 3300, 3380

3

Black Toner

HP Laserjet 2100,2200

7

Black Toner

HP Laserjet 4, 4+, 5

3

Maintenance Kit

HP Laserjet 4000 (C4118-69001)

2

Black Toner

HP Laserjet 4000, 4050

2

Black Toner

HP Laserjet 5p, 5mp, 6p, 6mp

1

Maintenance Kit

HP Laserjet 9000

2

Black Toner

HP Laserjet II, IID, III, IIID

1

Cyan Toner

Xerox Phaser 6250

1

Yellow Toner

Xerox Phaser 6250

What's Good, What's Not, and What's Happening When?

The Helpdesk provides support for university equipment and software on the local area network. Each month's update will include the versions of software and minimum requirements for hardware with the new or changed information highlighted and bolded.

Memory Sticks: Purchase (and encourage your students to buy) flash drives that are USB Mass Storage Compliant.

Operating Systems: The supported version of Macintosh machines will be OS X, version 5 after the Leopard conversion. The supported version of Microsoft's operating system is Windows XP. We are still evaluating the timeline for the move from XP to Windows Vista. It will definitely not occur prior to Summer 2008, and may be delayed till Christmas 2008.

Software Packages: The supported versions of office suites are Microsoft's Office 2007 and WordPerfect 12 for PC's. The supported version of an office suite for Macintoshes is Microsoft Office 2004. Microsoft has not yet released a new version of Office for the Macintoshes.

Hardware Configurations: The minimum requirements for SHSU local area network support for a PC are a 1Ghz processor, 512MB RAM, and a 40GB disk. With next summer's Vista roll-out, the minimum configuration will be a 2GHz processor, 1GB memory, and 80GB hard drive. The minimum requirements for a Macintosh on the LAN are a 733 Mhz processor, 512MB RAM, and a 40GB disk.

Computer Services may schedule significant periods of downtime for major system upgrades and maintenance. For your planning purposes, the weekend following each graduation will be set aside for scheduled outages. Additionally, certain systems may be unavailable on Friday nights after 6 p.m. We are waiting for the contractors to notify us of an outage of power to AB1 (and thus a campus-wide computer and VOIP phone outage) of several hours in the near future as the electrical work is completed for the Telcom Center move.

All offers, training, and software above pertain to faculty and staff at SHSU only. If you have any questions, compliments, comments, or concerns, please let us know.